Any old music will do

I blew the virtual dust off of Tina Turner's 1984 comeback album Private Dancer this week. Private Dancer was the first of three albums Tina released in the 80s that I really love - the others being Break Every Rule - my sentimental favorite of the three - and Foreign Affair, which is noticeably inferior but still contains some kick-ass songs. What blew me away listening to to the album almost 30 (!) years is how on this album, they really captured lightning in a bottle. Bucking the trend at the time - and now, for that matter - that women over 40 couldn't have a chart hit, Turner knocked everyone's socks off and then some.

Private Dancer came into my life in much the same way it might have come into many people's lives in the mid 80s - via the Columbia House Record Club. Who in their right mind could resist 12 albums for one lousy penny? It was not one of our initial 12 albums. Rather, we were well into the bait-and-switch portion of the agreement, where you pay twice as much for an album than you would at the store. And who could forget all the selections-of-the-month that you would get that you didn't want because you forgot to return the card declining it? I recall a MAD Magazine article that referred to them as slightly more difficult to get out of than an Iranian jail. I think I was still a member of some form of Columbia House or BMG club well into the 90s. The other notable thing about Private Dancer is that it arrived from Columbia House in the same shipment as Madonna's debut album. Yes, Virginia, there was a time I didn't own everything that woman had produced.

Tina's gravelly voice is not for everybody, but it really did it for me. I didn't care much for "What's Love Got To Do With It" and Tina's mountain of hair. But in the summer of 86 I really dove into the pop music pool, and at the end of that summer, Tina put out her first single from the Break Every Rule album, "Typical Male," and I was very fond of that song. So retroactively, I ordered Private Dancer. Turner's voice is so well suited for the material. The amazing thing about the album is that it is a pop album that is also an R&B album AND a rock album. Turner was not about to be confined by genre. The album was a huge smash hit and spun off a shitload of singles and also fueled other Tina songs on other people's albums and soundtracks.

The song I love most on Private Dancer is "I Might Have Been Queen" - one of the few that was not a single. It's a perfect amalgam of pop and rock and I was glad when it was resurrected for the Tina Turner biopic What's Love Got To Do With It.



Like Stevie Nicks' "Stand Back" it has this energy that comes out of nowhere and just propels the song forward.

The last Tina Turner album I bought was the soundtrack to the previously mentioned What's Love Got To Do With It which featured re-recordings of the old Ike & Tina hits as well as a few new songs. After that, I really kind of tuned out. Even her attempt to Believe herself a la Cher really didn't interest me all that much, although I liked the single "When The Heartache Is Over." I admire the fact that Tina is still out there performing, even though she likely doesn't have to. But for me, I'm happy to remember Tina from the 10 year period in which I really enjoyed her music.

The mention of MAD Magazine made me think of this Tina related item from MAD. I believe the title of the article was "Badly Needed Warning Labels For Rock Albums."

7 songs

I have not done the 7 songs meme in a while - and there have been several songs I have been REALLY into recently, so it felt like time to revisit it. Links to YouTube videos where I could find them.

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they're not any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now, shaping your spring. Post these instructions in your blog along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see what they're listening to.

1) Help Me (Live in Cadogan Hall) / Will Young
This is currently my favorite cover song out there. Originally found on Joni Mitchell's Court & Spark, "Help Me" is deceptively simple, but the melody and lyrics are actually quite complex. I also love his androgynous voice, especially in the beginning when you can't decide if it's a male or female singing and as it hits some of the higher notes. I think Joni Mitchell would be proud of this version of the song.

2) A Fool In Love / Tina Turner
I have had a huge Tina Turner renaissance over the last few weeks. Even before I rewatched What's Love Got To Do With It, I was really loving this song. I have not heard Tina's original vocal on this, but rather, it is the rerecorded version that she did for the movie that has got my attention right now. What I love about it is how Tina's gruff vocals are such a contrast to the back-up singers on the chorus. That and the "you know you love him/you can't understand/why he treats you like he do/when he's such a good man." That lyric can really get stuck in your head.

3) Say You Love Me / Fleetwood Mac
This has probably always been one of my favorite Christine McVie songs in the Fleetwood Mac catalog. The version I am really into right now is the one from The Chain boxset which puts guitars over the piano opening and makes them more prominent throughout. It just seems to have more meat on the bones of the song. Plus the ending harmonies are just classic. Too bad that McVie is not joining Fleetwood Mac on their current tour.

4) Never (Heaven on the Floor Mix) / Kristine W. (stream it)
Kristine W. is one of those artists that you really don't need to own a whole album of. A few choice tracks here and there should satisfy most people. This (along with "Lovin' You" from the Queer as Folk soundtrack) is what I would qualify as essential Kristine W. After getting over my initial disappointment in finding out it was not a Heart cover, I really came to appreciate this song. It came on my iPod at the gym today and it is a PERFECT gym song. It's probably going on my year end best-of list, so you heard it here first.

5) If I Were You / Stevie Nicks
One of my most favorite of all of Stevie's album tracks, it pretty much never leaves the "Dan's Favorites" playlist on my iPod. The best part of the whole song is the "Every boy must learn to be a man/Well, I think I can help you/Yes I can" part. It takes me back to January of 88, playing The Bard's Tale on the Apple IIe and being sucked into the web of Stevie in which I am still stuck to this day. I never would have thought that 21 years later, it would still be in such heavy rotation.

6) We Connect / Stacey Q
Speaking of a song I would have never thought would be in heavy rotation on my iPod in the year 2009, this minor hit for Stacey Q is one of them. But for whatever reason, here I am, nearly 37 years old and I'm listening to this bubble gum stuff. I can't help it. It is so infectious plus it has the "tion" rhymes that get me every time. "It's no exaggeration/not imagination/You're the finest boy in town/Playing with temptation/overnight sensation/With a boy from the wrong side of town." It really is kind of scary the kinds of things that appeal to me.

7) Asleep / The Smiths
I am not a big Smiths fan, although I have been dallying with them a bit recently. What set it off was the song "Asleep" which featured prominently in The Perks of Being a Wallflower. It is the song that Charlie listens to and at that moment "feels infinite." I meant to blog that book, but I'm afraid that ship has sailed. However, it was a great book. And as Smiths songs go, this one is just heartbreaking - and there are a lot of heartbreaking, melancholy Smiths songs.

Not tagging anyone, but consider yourself tagged if you so desire.

Not the morning I expected

I had grand plans for this morning, which should have been my first clue that things would NOT go according to plan. I did manage to get a couple of e-mails I've been meaning to send sent out, but beyond that, nothing. I have a blog post cooking that I am very eager to write - one that I intended to start this morning. Did not happen. The problem with blogging is I always get the urge and inspiration to write while I am at work. That is decidedly not happening. Ever.

I did do 15 minutes on the bike this morning while I watched an episode of The X-Files. The episode was "Small Potatoes" in which a man is able to change his appearance at will and eventually turns into Mulder. It was obviously fun for David Duchovny to play that dual role, but I thought the writing was predictable and boring and it has made me not want to get the next disc in the series right away. I think I am going to get the Tina Turner biopic What's Love Got To Do With It which I haven't seen since college and I have kind of been into the song "I Don't Wanna Fight" recently.



So as the Eddie Izzard joke goes, the best laid plans of mice and men. Exactly which mice plans was he really honing in here on? But my plans did definitely gang aft aglay.

Be kind to my mistakes

2008 is several hours from being ancient history. It's been a hell of a ride. I have had more ups and downs this year than in any year in recent memory. This is neither good nor bad - rather, it just is. It's been a year full of new faces and old ones reentering my life. It's been concerts and road trips and Guitar Hero and all the other things that made 2008 what it was. It was 275 blog posts (including this one), reaching my 5th year of blogging and my 1000th post within a few weeks of each other. We lost some people this year who shuffled off this mortal coil - my last grandparent, Jeff's mom, and we lost other people due to the continental drift that seems to pervade most relationships.

Robbie over at Chart Rigger did a 2008 highlights post - I have a few of my own as well.

• Sticky & Sweet Tour - Chicago Style
• Dolly in May, and Dolly in November
• Nerdery Week
• New York City, April 2008
• My parents hit the 40th anniversary mark, as Madonna turns the big 5-0.

And those are just the highlights. I am not a fan of New Year's resolutions - mostly they just set you up to fail. But if there's any one thing I want to do in 2009 is to take Kate Bush's advice and be kind to my mistakes. I am perhaps my own worst critic and do not always treat myself very well - at least not with the same sort of kindness that I save for everyone else. But this year, I'm getting some of that if it kills me.

I can't remember a time that was more uncertain than right now. But if we all are just a little bit more forgiving of each and other and be kind to each other's mistakes - as Ike & Tina Turner said, I think it's gonna work out fine.

Happy 2009 everyone!